In Memory of
Ma Martha Johnson
A Mother's Courage in Monrovia
Ma Martha sheltered over thirty children during the siege of Monrovia, risking her life to protect the most vulnerable.
Ma Martha Johnson was known throughout her neighborhood in Sinkor as a woman of extraordinary compassion. When fighting engulfed Monrovia in 1990, she opened her home to children who had been separated from their families.Over the course of several months, Ma Martha sheltered, fed, and protected more than thirty children. She would venture out during lulls in the fighting to find food and water, often sharing her own meager rations so the children could eat.
"She told us we were all her children now," recalled one survivor. "She said as long as she was breathing, no harm would come to us."
Ma Martha did not survive the war, but the children she saved carry her memory forward. Many of them are now parents themselves, naming their daughters Martha in her honor.
Her story is a testament to the extraordinary courage of ordinary Liberians who, in the darkest of times, chose love over fear.